Valerie Banes Hancock is the full-time Ceramics Lab Technician and an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Texas where she manages the ceramics facility and teaches beginning through advanced undergraduate ceramics classes.  She is also the UNT Clay Guild Faculty Advisor and helps coordinate the visiting artist workshops for the Ceramics program.  Her functional ceramic work has been exhibited across the US. 

Valerie grew up in Tulsa, OK where she fondly remembers getting her hands dirty at an early age- making 'mud pies' in the backyard with her big sister, dressed in their 'kinis (bikinis), and leaving them out in the sun to 'bake.'  Valerie received her BFA in Ceramics & Photography from the University of Oklahoma and her MFA in Ceramics from UNT.